EBay – MPs call for ban on the sale of tickets

A report in the Sunday newspaper The People suggests that some MPs want the sale of event tickets on eBay to be banned. What seems to have caused this latest cal was the fact that £45 tickets for the Take That concert were being offered online for £200 within 30 minutes of them going on sale.

Shaun Woodward the Culture Minster is said to favour a voluntary code of practice whereby ticket buyers would register personal details that could then be checked against pin numbers.

In an interview on TV earlier this week an eBay spokesman said that as far as the company was concerned the sale of tickets was legitimate because the person offering the ticket was the actual owner of that ticket and had a right to offer it for sale if they wished.

One point that The People highlighted was the fact that UK consumer laws do not cover tickets bought online so purchasers would have no claim for a refund if an event was cancelled.